Draft Housing Delivery Strategy Consultation

Cllr Shaban Mohammed – Lead Member for Housing Services Darren Levy – Director of Housing Donna Morelli – Assistant Director of Housing Services Bobby Arthur – Commissioning Leader, Housing Management Emma Brunskill-Powell – Senior Policy Officer

People at the Heart of Everything We Do Housekeeping

- Please remain muted when you’re not speaking
- The session will not be recorded
- You will be invited to join breakout rooms for the two discussion rounds
- Gallery view is easiest to see everyone
- In the interest of privacy, please do not raise any personal housing cases.
- If you have a query about your place on the housing waiting list, please contact Shiraz.Bhaiji@newham.gov.uk and an officer will respond to discuss your case.
- For any other issues, please send a message using the chat function within Zoom Agenda

5:30pm Welcome and introductions, housekeeping 5:35m Presentation 5:45pm Discussion 1: overview and general direction 6:10pm Regroup and response 6:20pm Discussion 2: specific proposals 6:45pm Regroup and response 6:55pm Thanks and next steps 7:00pm Close Purpose of the draft Housing Delivery Strategy

- The interventions and actions in this strategy are focused on what we can do now (over the next 3 to 5 years) within the resources and constraints that the council operates under.

- They represent the first steps towards the long-term vision for housing.

- Achieving our vision and reversing decades of neglect during which secure, affordable council housing was marginalised will take many years.

- If we are going to achieve our vision it will require sustained and growing investment over a long period and fundamental changes to national housing policy on issues like tenants’ rights, affordable housing programmes and climate change. Newham’s Housing Crisis

- Newham has the longest Housing Register of any London Borough.

- It also has the highest number of homeless households in temporary accommodation in London.

- Approximately 1 in 4 households are overcrowded.

- Newham has the lowest average earnings in London with 27% earning less than minimum wage in 2017.

- Around one in three residents live in the private rented sector (compared with one in four across London) where the rising cost of rent far outstrips wage rises.

| Borough | Waiting list | |---------------|--------------| | Newham | 27,635 | | Lambeth | 25,198 | | Tower Hamlets | 19,826 | | Greenwich | 15,386 | | Islington | 14,567 | Six key areas

1. Putting people at the heart of housing
2. Building, buying and securing more and better homes
3. Addressing the Climate Emergency
4. A safe and secure private rented sector
5. Better Council stock and specialist housing
6. Tackling homelessness Putting people at the heart of housing

- Resident involvement strategy, setting out the housing service’s new residents-first approach

- More opportunities for residents to discuss housing issues through housing hubs, housing liaison officers, and regular tenant and leaseholder forums.

- Our responses to homelessness and rough sleeping will be caring and compassionate

- Regeneration programmes will continue to prioritise co-production

- New homes delivered through our partners as well as by the Council will be able to meet a range of housing needs.

- Explore how we can establish a renters’ rights service Building, buying and securing more and better homes

- Delivery of new homes through the Council’s own affordable housebuilding programme

- Innovative approaches to boosting supply include air rights to build on the top floors of existing blocks, modular homes to boost temporary accommodation, and a joint venture with the NHS.

- Procuring and acquiring new homes, for use as temporary accommodation or as Council homes to be let at social rent.

- Working with partners including private developers, housing associations and GLA and TfL Addressing the Climate Emergency

- A quarter of Newham’s CO₂ emissions come from domestic energy use. We are setting ourselves high standards for low-energy homes.

- We will be starting a programme of energy-efficient retrofit across Council properties and using the landlord licensing scheme to address poor standards in the PRS.

- We also are exploring an innovative retrofit scheme that would incentivise owner-occupiers to invest in making Victorian homes more energy efficient. A safe and secure private rented sector

- Build on the licencing scheme, continuing to prosecute bad landlords and support them to make improvements

- Cracking down on poor energy performance in the PRS.

- We will promote a professional PRS sector to drive up quality, and continue to campaign for legal and administrative changes Better Council stock and specialist housing

- Reviewing how we allocate Council properties via the waiting list, prioritising those most in need. Proposals will be consulted on from October to December 2020.

- We will also invest in these existing properties to ensure that these properties are safe, well maintained and managed, contribute to climate change avoidance.

- Meeting specialist housing need, based on evidence about what our residents need. Tackling homelessness

- Work to prevent homelessness by providing good quality advice and information and where homelessness cannot be prevented, we will ensure early intervention

- Build on the progress on rough sleeping made with the “everybody in” programme and develop a long-term plan for Stratford

- Reduce the numbers in temporary accommodation by procuring longer term solutions

- As you may be aware, the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy published at the end of last year is due to be replaced by a new, longer-term strategy by the end of 2021. We will be starting work on this over the coming weeks. Discussion questions 1

1. Does anything need clarifying or explaining?

2. Do you agree with the overall ambition of the strategy, and the three-five year timescale?

3. Do we have the balance of priorities right with the six key themes? Discussion questions 2

4. Looking at the actions within each of the themes, do they seem appropriate to the scale of the crisis?

5. Are there any actions that you particularly agree with/disagree with?

6. Are there any actions we have missed, that you think should be included? How to get involved

- The draft Housing Delivery Strategy can be downloaded at https://www.newham.gov.uk/housingstrategy
- There is an optional short survey asking respondents whether they agree with each of the sections of the strategy, as well as the overall approach
- If you wish to submit more detailed comments or have questions about the Strategy please send your response to housingdeliverystrategy@newham.gov.uk
- The consultation closes on Monday 4 January 2021